A Town Called Mercy
by wolfienjhoanfdwar
Summary: A continuation of the scene after Kahler-Jex tries to take Amy in A Town Called Mercy.


Kahler-Jex is packing his things in a carrier bag. He's pointing a gun at Amy, through the bars of his cell. "Isaac says he doesn't care about my past. But things may have been uncovered that even he might struggle to forgive." He comes around the corner, still speaking. "So it's best we beat a hasty retreat."

"We?" Amy questions, beginning to stutter. "I-I'm coming with you?"

Jex still has the gun pointed at her. "It's unlikely the Gunslinger will shoot if I'm with you," He explains, moving backwards to move to the door. "As far as I can tell, he's programmed to take innocent lives only if absolutely necessary."

"Oh, well, colour me reassured." Amy says sarcastically, her eyes burning with different emotions, ones hard to decipher.

She looks down at the gun, thinking of a way out of this. Jex opens the door, still moving backwards, when he feels a gun against the back of his neck. He moves forward, hands up in surrender, breathing heavily. "What are you doing?" Isaac asks calmly.

"It was stupid of me. I realise that now." Jex tries to explain his actions, once Isaac has got him far enough away from the door and released the gun from his neck. "I just thought I'd put you all in enough danger. Perhaps if I left-"

Rory cuts him off. "But putting my wife in danger is OK? As long as you get safely to your ship?"

Jex stutters under his glare, "I-I thought the Gunslinger might not shoot if she was with me."

"And if he did? What would you've done then?" Rory's tone is calm, yet demanding, with warning to it, letting you know that if you cross the line, your time will be up.

He takes a long time answering, knowing that if he says the wrong thing, he'll cause chaos. "I would've tried to heal her."

Rory exhales slowly. "You would've been able to heal her? The Gunslinger wouldn't have shot you?"

"I suppose-" Kahler-Jex tries to justify himself, but Rory cuts him off again.

"You suppose? Do people matter to you? Or is it just an experiment? I know how it feels to heal people. But you, you're not a scientist or a doctor. You're something else. You would willing put someone else's life in front of your own; let them die first. It makes me sick."

Jex sighs, "I know it was wrong of me-"

"That makes me even more sick. The fact that you're trying to go back on what you've done. Don't even get me started on the fact the person you were using was my wife."

"Lighten up a bit, OK?" Isaac tells him. "What's done is done. And we got to him first."

Rory breathes out, calming himself, as the Doctor comes in. "I'm sorry. The Doctor's still right." He leaves then, taking a seat on the porch out front.

What was that? That wasn't him. Sometimes he thinks he's too Roman. He opens the door too wide and that causes something else in him to stir. Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it doesn't. But he never knows until he opens it, and by that time, it's too late.

"Rory?" He looks up, hearing Amy's voice.

He doesn't look at her. Just keeps his eyes forward. "Yeah?"

She sits down beside him. "You know he didn't take me. You got to him in time."

"If we didn't?" His eyes and voice are steely, much like a Roman.

Amy rubs his arm. "But you did." Seeing no response from him, she says the one thing that'll get a reaction. "You were calmly angry in there. You opened the door, didn't you?"

He looks at her then, but doesn't say anything. His eyes are pleading with her, begging for a reason as to why he did.

"You are very protective. Of me especially." She observes, looking at him, trying to read his face. She could always tell what he was thinking.

His eyebrows crinkle, giving him a cute confused look. "Is there something wrong with that?"

She shakes her head, "No." She dismissed, "But you can't keep opening the door. I know what it does to you."

"You know I hate remembering. But if that's what it takes for people to take me seriously, for me to keep you safe, then that's what I'll do." He says it with so much conviction, it's really hard for her not to believe him.

She smiles, taking him in her arms and hugging him, stroking his hair. "You can't keep pretending. We both know it's tearing you apart." He's like a kid, sometimes, but so is she. They are still 7 - when they first met.

He looks at her again; that cute frown. "Pretending? Tearing me apart? What are you talking about?"

"You keep pretending like it doesn't hurt. Like it doesn't haunt you when you open the door. Like you've ever stopped being Roman."

"2000 years isn't something I'm likely to forget." He chuckles, coldly. As he remembers his life as a Roman and neither of them speak for a while. When he speaks again, it's low and small. "It's not being Roman that haunts me."

She's so scared of the answer, she almost doesn't ask the question. "So, what does?"

He smiles, a small half smile. "Killing you. The whole point of me being a Roman for so long was too keep you safe, because I killed you."

"You didn't kill me."

He ignores her, knowing that he did. He has to shut it out, quickly, before it consumes him. "All this about Jex and morality keeps making me think about how I'm exactly like him. The Doctor. We both lived for so long, and love you so much, it's just..."

She nods. "I know." She rubs his back comfortingly. "C'mon, let's go stop the Doctor from being stupid."

"We both know that's your job."

She gives him a kiss for a reward, although neither are sure what for. Protection? Love? Just because? In the end, though, it doesn't matter.


End file.
